Dunin-Borkowski, Stanislaus von (1864-1934)

Stanislaus von Dunin-Borkowski was an Austrian Jesuit scholar, who made a very thorough scholarly research of the anti-Trinitarian writings of the 16th century prior to the coming of Socinianism. In this research he included also several Anabaptist writers (above all Pilgram Marpeck) whom he falsely classified as anti-Trinitarians. Since his scholarship is of the first rank, his studies have added to the confusion of the concept of the Anabaptists. He published (a) Quellenstudien zur Vorgeschichte der Unitarier des 16. Jahrhunderts, in 75 Jahre Stella Matutina (Feldkirch, Austria, 1931, 91-138) (b) Untersuchungen zum Schrifttum der Unitarier vor Faustus Sozzini, ibid. II (1931) 103-147 (on Pilgram Marpeck 110-112); (c) "Die Gruppierung der Anti-Trinitarier des 16. Jahrhunderts," in Scholastik. VII (Bonn, 1932), dealing also with Adam Pastor and other Unitarians with Anabaptist leanings. Dunin-Borkowski's findings were extensively used by E. M. Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism (Harvard Press, 1946), and by Roland H. Bainton, "The Left Wing of the Reformation," Journal of Religion XXI (1941), where these early Anti-Trinitarians were misleadingly called Anabaptists. John C. Wenger in his study, "The Theology of Pilgram Marpeck," Mennonite Quarterly Review XII (1938) 214-16, convincingly refutes the contentions of Dunin-Borkowski of Marpeck's alleged anti-Trinitarian leanings. Robert Friedmann, "The Encounter of Anabaptists and Mennonites with Anti-Trinitarianism." Mennonite Quarterly Review XXII (1948) 139 ff. (particularly 146), likewise analyzes the material, arriving at a more clear-cut ideological distinction.